The Michael Crichton Thread

[chaseter]

This man is one of my favorite authors of all time. His academic knowledge allowed him to write some of the most scientifically complex and engaging stories that lead to some of the greatest movies of all time. Do you enjoy his work and them being translated into movies? Do you have a favorite book of his? Here is a list of his books:


1966 Odds On 1967 Scratch One 1968 Easy Go A Case of Need 1969 Zero Cool The Andromeda Strain The Venom Business 1970 Drug of Choice Dealing Grave Descend 1972 Binary The Terminal Man 1975 The Great Train Robbery 1976 Eaters of the Dead 1980 Congo 1987 Sphere 1990 Jurassic Park 1992 Rising Sun 1994 Disclosure 1995 The Lost World 1996 Airframe 1999 Timeline 2002 Prey 2004 State of Fear 2006 Next 2009 Untitled Novel

I have read Great Train Robbery, Congo, Sphere, Jurassic Park, Lost World, and Rising Sun. I am currently re-reading The Lost World My favorite of his has to go to Sphere and Jurassic Park...two wonderful books and two great movies.

 

[SuperFerret]

I've read Jurassic Park, Lost World, and Congo. Big fan of the dinosaur books, not so much with Congo. I've been meaning to get The Andromeda Strain.

 

[Alistair]

Heya,

I've read a lot of this books, and yes he is brilliant writer, and a tragic loss.

Disclosure, Timeline, and Airframe are pretty brilliant too. Sadly, Timeline the movie wasn't that great, but the book was down right awesome.

Just my 2 cents,
Ali

 

[chaseter]

I wonder what the untitled novel to be released this year will be.

 

[bgates87]

Heh, I came here to see if there was a Michael Crichton thread the other day after reading that thread about Jurassic Park and cloning or whatever and there wasn't one, I'm glad someone made one. Also I'm happy to see you've included "John Lange's" novels, and the other pen names he used, I don't remember what they are.

I've read Congo, Jurassic Park, The Lost World, and Sphere. I LOVED Sphere. I think it's my favorite of his books, and that means a lot coming from someone who never grew out of their childhood fascination with dinosaurs. I didn't like the movie Sphere that much, though. I think what got me with Sphere was the fact that I've never been a good swimmer and one of my worst fears is to drown or to just be really deep under water, so obviously that book was playing on some of my worst fears. I'd love to see the movie redone and more true to the book.

 

[ross2287]

Obviously I've read Jurassic Park. Better than the movie, in my opinion. Not to say the movie wasn't good. They're two different things, really. The Lost World was also good and I enjoyed Timeline.

Sadly, that's all I've read of his yet. He is a fantastic author though and really influenced my early writing style.

I was shocked when I heard of his death. The world lost a great talent that day.

 

[chaseter]

I am halfway done with The Lost World...read it probably 10 years ago...and it is amazing how different from the book the movie is. I would really love to see remakes of Jurassic Park and The Lost World some day.

 

[Spider-Who?]

cool. He was an awesome writer, what more can one say?

The books of his that I have read so far are:

Jurassic Park (forget the movie, the book was just as much a part of my childhood as the film, if not more so)
Lost World
Shpere
Congo
A Case of Need
Amdromeda Strain
Terminal Man
State of Fear

Some of his that I plan to read soon are:

Eaters of the Dead (saw the movie, wasn't too bad)
Time Line
Rising Sun

 

[Ghostvirus]

Prey was my favorite of his. State Of Fear was also really good. Heck all his books were really good.

 

[VampElvis]

Timeline the book was SSSOOOO much better thant he movie that it's sick. Marek got screwed in the movie. His was an awesome character that they completely messed up. Of course I may be a little biased. My little brother named his son after that character.

 

[Chrisbarnes182]

I have read

Jurrasic Park
The Lost World
The Terminal Man
Eaters of The Dead
Disclosure
Airframe
Timeline
State of Fear
Prey
Next


To me these were all brilliant, and I'm sure to a lot of people of my age I started reading Michael Crichtons bopoks as a result of seeing the Jurassic Park Film and i'll tell you what it is Amazing how a book of a film, that you have already watched can exciter you like that so Jurassic Park will always have a special place to me.

However I love Prey. I thought it was absolutely brilliant an had hoped it would eventually be made into a film because I think that it could come across very well on the big screen.

I'm not sure if its just me but anyone else think that the new Rise of The Plant of the Apes movie basically got its ideas from Michaels book Next??

 

[Marvolo]

Ive only read hisJurassic Park and it was a fun read. Im gonna try to read more of his stuff.

 

[Chrisbarnes182]

Ive only read hisJurassic Park and it was a fun read. Im gonna try to read more of his stuff.

You should. I would recommend Prey very highly.

"From the Number One international bestselling author of Jurassic Park comes this classic Crichton page-turner, weaving together heart-pounding thrills with cutting-edge technology.

In the Nevada desert, an experiment has gone horribly wrong. A cloud of nanoparticles – micro-robots – has escaped from the laboratory. This cloud is self-sustaining and self-reproducing. It is intelligent and learns from experience. For all practical purposes, it is alive. It has been programmed as a predator. It is evolving swiftly, becoming more deadly with each passing hour. Every attempt to destroy it has failed. And we are the prey.

As fresh as today’s headlines, Michael Crichton’s most compelling novel yet tells the story of a mechanical plague, and the desperate efforts of a handful of scientists to stop it. Drawing on up-to-the-minute science fact, PREY takes us into the emerging realms of nanotechnology and artificial distributed intelligence – in a story of breathtaking suspense."

 

[Slushy]

Everybody loves Jurassic Park (including me), but I thought Sphere was his most interesting work.

Eaters Of The Dead gets an honorable mention.

 

[Piper Maru]

Let's see, I've read Jurassic Park, The Andromeda Strain and Prey.

Need to do some catching up!

 

[Micromind]

He was one of my favorite authors, So far I've read -

Jurassic Park
Lost World
Time Line
Air Frame
Sphere
The Andromeda Strain
Prey

Both Jurassic Park and The Lost World novels are so much better than the movies. Andromeda Strain and Time line are good too.

 

[Chrisbarnes182]

He was one of my favorite authors, So far I've read -

Jurassic Park
Lost World
Time Line
Air Frame
Sphere
The Andromeda Strain
Prey

Both Jurassic Park and The Lost World novels are so much better than the movies. Andromeda Strain and Time line are good too.

They are both better but for me it was good that I actually saw the films before reading the books. I'm not sure what but i suppose I had a more vivid picture of what people/animals look like. That is for the first book anyway. I had read the second by the time the 2nd movie was released.

 

[Baramos]

I think my favorites are Sphere, Timeline, and yeah, Jurassic Park. Those are the ones I've read multiple times. I was disappointed when the movie didn't have those bazookas and show the raptors getting blown to bits, haha. I've read most of his other novels, too, he was pretty entertaining. I haven't read Eaters of the Dead but I liked The 13th Warrior so I assume the book is even better...unlike most of his others though it's hard to track that one down.

I didn't like State of Fear, not only because the science was pretty outlandish (not necessarily his take on global warming, though it was also wrong--I mean the tidal wave thing), but the liberal strawmen villains and their villainous plot were pretty ridiculous. It felt like good writing was taking a backseat to his political views. Like so much of the dialogue was stilted talking points from both sides of the political spectrum coming from paper thin caricatures. It was not very good.

I liked Pirate Latitudes quite a bit but it didn't feel quite finished/revised (not surprisingly), and I disliked that he threw in a supernatural element right at the end there, since up until that point there was nothing else in the book that wasn't possible (maybe not probable, but possible), and nothing else after that, either...if you have read it, you know what I'm talking about.

What is the other unreleased novel, anyway? When is it coming out?

EDIT: Ah, I see it's already out. Didn't know it had been published yet. It's called Micro. The plot sounds a lot like Prey, with nanomachines being used to assassinate people.

 

[Piper Maru]

I would love to see a film adaptation of Prey.

 

[Chrisbarnes182]

I would love to see a film adaptation of Prey.

I second that.